Txt Msging and English Literacy among Preteens, Adolescents, Young Adults

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Txt Msging and English Literacy among Pre-teens,
Adolescents, Young Adults

• Jennifer C. Chang
• California State University, Dominguez Hills

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Introduction

• Text messaging was originally designed for
  commercial use, to alert people when they had
  received a voicemail
• -Crystal (2008)
• Text messages are usually 160 characters, and
  sent through mobile phones instantly
• -Tagliamonte Denis (2007)

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3 Sociolinguistic Maxims-Thurlow (2003)

• (1) brevity and speed abbreviation of words
• minimal use of punctuation, spaces,
  capitalization
• try2rite essays
• (2) paralinguistic restitution punctuation,
  capitalization
• DARN, what???, oh...
• (3) phonological approximation
• wot, bin, goin

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Introduction

• Research shows text messaging positively affects
  the English literacy of students
• far more complex sentence structure
• wider vocabulary
• more accurate use of capital letters,
  punctuation, and spelling. (Massey, 2005)
• Those children who were the best at using
  textisms were also found to be the better
  spellers and writers
• (Plester, 2006)

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Past Studies

• Massey (2005) Archival Data
• 25 years of archival data
• Exam papers/exams were analyzed from 16 yr olds
• The quality of many features of writing by
  school leavers has improved over the past decade
  
• Plester (2006) Correlational Study
• 35 subjects, 11 year olds
• Those who texted more, scored higher on standard
  spelling tests/school tests
• Subjects asked to translate textisms into
  standard English, vice versa
• Those who texted frequently were also identified
  as strong readers and writers

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What People are Saying

• Its really a new language and a new grammar
• Messaging by cell phone is the biggest
  revolution in communications since the advent of
  e-mail
• Text messaging might one day be as popular as
  talking
• There is no evidence to link text messaging
  among children to a poorer ability in standard
  English

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What People are Saying

• The changes we see taking place today in the
  language will be a prelude to the dying use of
  good English
• The English language is being beaten up
• Fears are growing that todays teenagers are
  becoming Generation Grunt having lost the
  ability to talk or express itself
• thin and unimaginative masking dyslexia, poor
  spelling and mental laziness it is penmanship
  for illiterates

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Hypothesis

• Text messaging positively affects the English
  literacy of pre-teens, adolescents, and young
  adults.

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Variables
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GWE/EPT Rubric
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Examples of Expressive Writing

• 6 - Dear X, I recently purchased a book from
  one of your stores and was disturbed by the poor
  quality of service and lack of customer service
  skills from your employees. I expected your
  employees to be helpful and courteous but found
  them to possess neither qualities. When asked if
  they could suggest a gift for a friend, I receive
  no suggestions whatsoever. Not only did I have to
  search for a gift myself, when I was strapped for
  time, I thought I almost had to scan the item and
  leave payment myself because no one was manning
  the register at the front. It was a good 10
  minutes before a sales associate asked me if I
  needed any help! I am disappointed to have had
  this experience since it was my first time
  shopping in this particular store, when I
  normally patron your competitor's locations. I
  do not want any apology letter nor any gift
  certificates. I simply want you to be aware of
  the treatment your customers are undoubtedly
  receiving at this location and hope that you will
  correct this so patrons will receive excellent
  service in the future. Unfortunately, I will not
  be one of those patrons. Sincerely, X

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Examples of Expressive Writing

• 3- dear the manger of snickers, i bought
  one of your bars and i it had a toenail in it i
  was mad and i nearly choked on it i would like
  you to fire the person how sold me this and i
  would like to fill out a complant form and how
  your coustermer services suck because i had to
  ask for you and one of the people on the phone
  could of answered my question
• 1- your video game sucks i want my money back

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Variables
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Variables

• Acronyms
• LOL, TTYL, BTDT
• Lowercase i
• i am sam, sam i am
• No apostrophes
• thats my sisters car
• Shortened Words
• C U l8r

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Variables

• Smilies
• ) (
• Physical Reactions
• hug, cries
• All Capitals
• PSYCHOLOGY RULES!

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Methods

• Online survey for 11-60 year olds
• 678 subjects, 11-25 years of age

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Gender and Age

• Women and older subjects had higher ratings in
  the formal writing sample.
• Through an Analysis of Covariance, we covaried
  out both age and gender

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Results
MORE USE OF THESE TYPES OF TEXTISMS WAS RELATED
TO LOWER WRITING SCORES (pACRONYMS
SHORTENED WORDS
NO APOSTROPHES
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Conclusion

• The use of some textisms does negatively impact
  the writing ability of pre-teens, adolescents,
  and young adults.

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Conclusion

• Yes acronyms LOL, TTYL
• shortened words C U l8r
• no apostrophes thats my sisters
• No smilies ) (
• lowercase i i am sam
• all capitals YAY!
• physical reactions laughs

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Comparison

• Our findings do not support the two studies in
  England.
• Massey(2005) - archival data from English
  exams/papers
• Plester(2006)- correlational study
• Text more, score higher on standard
  spelling tests/school tests
• Our study was based on formal writing samples

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Limitations

• Online anonymous survey
• Non-random sampling
• Focused on formal writing sample
• Results limited to 11-25 age group

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Acknowledgements

• Dr. Larry Rosen
• Jennifer Dixon
• Dr. L. Mark Carrier
• Dr. Nancy Cheever
• Sandra Benitez

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Txt commndmntsLangwij
-Silver(2006)

• 1. u shall luv ur mobil fone with all ur hart
• 2 u ur fone shall neva b apart
• 3 u shall nt lust aftr ur neibrs fone nor thiev
• 4 u shall b prepard _at_ all times 2 tXt 2 recv
• 5 u shall use LOL othr acronyms in conversatns
• 6 u shall be zappy with ur astrsks
  exc!matns!!
• 7 u shall abbrevi8 rite words like theyr sed
• 8 u shall nt speak 2 sum1 face2face if u cn msg
  em insted
• 9 u shall nt shout with capitls XEPT IN DIRE
  EMERGNCY
• 10 u shall nt consult a ninglish dictnry

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• Thank u